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A project concept paper for the protection of the River Buriganga from encroachment by constructing walls and walkway on the bank has been pending with the Planning Commission for two months.
   The project, ‘constructing facilities including port facilities to keep the river Buriganga and riverbank free from illegal encroachment’, which involves Tk 55.86 crore, at an evaluation committee meeting on June 12 decided to rationalise the cost.
   The commission’s Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division, which asked for the cost rationalisation, is yet to do its job.
   This has delayed the paper’s placement to the executive committee of the National Economic Council for approval, the ministry officials said.
   The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority earlier submitted a project concept paper of Tk 94.36 crore to the shipping ministry for the Buriganga riverbank protection with walls and walkways in the middle of 2004.
   The ministry later asked the water transport agency to revise the project concept paper and reduce the cost dispensing with some items.
   The agency sent the revised project paper of Tk 55.86 crore to the shipping ministry in March, which was later sent to the Planning Commission in April through the ministry, they said.
   In the project paper, the water transport agency proposed to construct boundary wall of 1900 square metres at a cost of Tk 79.72 lakh and walkway along both the banks to protect a stretch of 10,000 metres at a cost of Tk 30 crore.
   The authorities will spend Tk 10 lakh on a soil test and a survey on the project.
   It also proposed dredging, reinforced concrete cement stairs, pontoons, steel jetty, parking yard, open yard, passenger shed and recreation centre and benches at the places.
   A water basin has been proposed at Kamrangirchar to harbour launches and vessels which are now moored at Sadarghat.
   The inland water agency conducted several drives from 2000; but many reclaimed areas were again grabbed in the absence of permanent protection measures, the agency officials said.
   The water agency statistics show that 2,115 illegal structures along the bank were demolished in five years —443 in 2000, 289 in 2002, 576 in 2003 and 504 in 2004.
   The agency during August 8–10 pulled down 302 illegal structures along the bank of the Buriganga and the Turag.
   The water transport agency and the Dhaka district administration will begin another drive today to pull down about a hundred illegal structures left out in the three-day drive.
   All the structures identified as illegal will be demolished during the drive, said Saiful Haque Khan, deputy director of the agency on port and transport.
   The agency and the district administration earlier identified about 400 structures, owned by 257 people in a survey along the Buriganga bank stretching from Khola Mora to Mirpur.

The second international British-Bangladesh fusion food festival will begin in Dhaka on August 24.
   The Sheraton Hotel and the Curry Life Magazine of London will organise the week-long festival at the Sheraton Hotel.
   Four British Bangladeshi chefs, working in some of the largest restaurants in Britain will join the festival.
   They were chosen by a panel of judges and food safety specialists from Curry through a competition in London, where 30 chefs competed in June.
   There are reportedly more than 8,000 Bangladeshi restaurants and about 16,000 chefs, mostly third-generation Britons or Europeans, will cook the delicacies that have changed the food habit of the English.
   Many among the chefs have improvised recipe using British and Bangladeshi ingredients.
   The minister for civil aviation and tourism, Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin, is expected to attend as chief guest in the opening ceremony.
   The British high commissioner in Dhaka, Anwar Choudhury, will be present as special guest, said Sheraton’s sales and marketing director ATM Hafizullah.
   He said the festival was first held in 2000 and it was a success. Hafizullah said the hotel would have a special discounted room rate for the expatriate Bangladeshis and foreigners visiting the festival. The official carrier of the festival, Air India, will give special discounts on tickets.
   The festival will remain open for all from August 25 at the Bithika Restaurant of Sheraton and more than 50 dishes — mostly fusion food — will be served.
   Sources in the hotel said dinner would cost about Tk 1,300 a person and will be open between 7:00pm and 10:00pm.
   The participant expatriate Bangladeshi chefs are Motuz Ali, executive chef of Mujib of Harrogate, West Yorkshire, Oli Khan, executive chef of Surma Stevenage, Hertfordshire, Mohin Bakth, executive chef of The Mugul, Brookwood, and Johur Ali, executive chef of Passage to India, Stony Stratford.
   Asian television Channel S is the media partner and Air India, Rajah, Bangla Beer, KKB Finance, Hatil, RC Cola and Unilever are co-sponsors.

Three mobile courts on Monday conducted drives at Tejgaon, Sabujbagh and Hazaribagh in the Dhaka city and collected Tk 58,000 in fine, filed 18 cases and sent two employees to jail.
   A mobile court conducted a drive at a vermicelli factory and a bakery at Hazaribagh in Dhaka and fined the owners Tk 2,000, filed three cases and sent two employees to jail.
   The court found filthy environment and toxic chemicals, including sodium cyclamate, an artificial sweetening agent, and urea, inside the factories.
   The court, led by metropolitan magistrate Rokon-ud-Doulah, conducted the drive at Diamond Semai Factory and the Chandpur Bakery at Hazaribagh.
   The mangers of the two factories — Siddique and Jasimuddin — were sentenced to one-month imprisonment and were fined Tk 1,000 each, in default to suffer one more month in jail.
   The court found rotten vermicelli and the environment dirty inside the factory. They also found sodium cyclamate, urea and chemicals of different types used in cake and biscuit at the bakery.
   The court filed two cases against the owner of the vermicelli factory, Motalib, and the bakery owner, Harun, as they managed to get away.
   The court filed another case against the owner of the Chandpur Bakery as the bakery did not have BSTI certification.
   Another court, led by metropolitan magistrate Mazibul Haque, conducted drive at sweetmeat shops, bakery, warehouses and restaurants at Sabujbagh and collected Tk 29,000 in fine. It filed six cases.
   The third court, led by metropolitan magistrate Mizanur Rahman, conducted drive at restaurants and food shops at Tejgaon and collected Tk 27,000 in fine. It filed nine cases.

The government on Monday decided to enact a law on the National Building Code to regulate the construction of buildings.
   The cabinet committee on public administration reform and good governance approved the formulation of the proposed law.
   The minister for finance and planning, M Saifur Rahman, chaired the meeting in the Cabinet Division conference room.
   After the meeting, the minister for housing and public works, Mirza Abbas, told newsman that they had formulated a book in this regard and would place it before the cabinet for the enactment of the new law.
   ‘The law will force the builders to follow a minimum standard of the materials,’ Abbas said.
   He hoped that the process of the new law would be finished within the next three months.
   ‘After the enactment, the law will ensure that no one will die in building collapse as in the cases at Shankhari Bazar or Savar,’ the minister said.
   Replying a question Abbas said those who will flout the law will be sent to jail or be fined.
   As per the new law, a building regulatory commission would look after the building construction and necessary people would be engaged for the job.
   Abbas said the government would make amendment to the National Housing Authority to make it more effective.
   Health and family planning minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, agriculture minister MK Anwar, posts and telecommunications minister M Aminul Huq were present.

A 23-member committee for the Jagannath Hall unit of the Bangladesh Chhatra Union was formed in its 27th council session.
   Shimul Biswas was elected president and Shubho Saha Anway general secretary.
   Others on the committee are vice-presidents Ujjwal Bikash Tripura, Shubhashis Mandal, Tanmay Majumder, Shyamal Marandi, Sanjay Dey Ripon, and Apurba Roy, assistant general secretaries Nityananda Biswas, Pranab Sarkar, and Barin Sikder, organising secretary Bikash Majumder, office secretary Tapan Kumar Palit, publicity secretary, Suman Biswas, treasurer Chandan Kundu, education and research secretary Suhas Shankar Chowdhury, social welfare secretary Debabrata Biswas, sports secretary Grener Soren, cultural secretary Palash Roy, and members Pabitra Mistri, Moloy Dey, and Nandi Gopal Roy.

The Workers Party youth front Bangladesh Juba Moitri Monday continued its mass contact programme against price spiral in Dhaka.
   The leaders and activists distributed leaflets at Badda and Gulshan.
   General secretary Sadakat Hossain Babul and leaders MA Syed, Jasim Uddin led the programme.
   Juba Moitri began the weeklong programme on Friday.

A three-day IT festival organised by the computer and programming club of the State University of Bangladesh ended on August 3.
   The Dhaka University vice-chancellor, SMA. Faiz, also member of board of governors of the State University, was chief guest.
   Faiz expressed his satisfaction at performance of the State University for the past three years.
   The vice-president of the State University board of governors, Mahbubur Rahman, thanked the university computer science and engineering department for holding the festival.
   The acting vice-chancellor, MS Ilyas Dhami, chaired the closing ceremony. Science and technology dean AAKM Lutluzzaman and lecturer Niaz Makhdum Mohammad also spoke.

Mobile operator GrameenPhone will arrange SMS voting for the Channel I-Lux Superstar contest, arranged by private television Channel i and Unilever Bangladesh.
   GrameenPhone subscribers will be able to vote for their favorite participants during the final selection process through SMS.
   The subscribers will need to send SMS to 3456, following the instruction given on television.
   This talent hunt programme is looking for female talents and thousands of young girls have taken part in the preliminary selection rounds held in cities.
   The mobile operator and the television channel recently signed an agreement in this regard.
   Channel I managing director Faridur Reza Sagar and GrameenPhone marketing director Kafil HS Muyeed signed the agreement.

The Institute of Hazrat Mohammad (SAW) organised a daylong lecture session for the visually impaired on Thursday, on awareness among the visually impaired of their legal, social and constitutional rights.
   Assistant attorney general Munina Asaf was keynote speaker. She focused on the constitutional rights of the visually impaired.
   She also informed the participants of legal recourse available in the existing constitutional framework.
   The institute calls on the privileged members of society to come forward and make a concerted effort to improve the condition of citizens with disabilities.

107 people arrested in Ctg
The Chittagong Metropolitan Police in separate drives arrested 107 people, including three convicts, on various charges and seized a light gun in the Chittagong city and district in 24 hours till 5:00pm Monday. The Panchlaish police arrested Nurul Absar, 35, jailed for life, at Purba Sawabil of Fatikchari. The Khulshi police arrested Mohammed Abul Kalam, 40, jailed for six months, at Jhautala and the Bandar police arrested Delwar Hossain, 35, jailed for six months, at Port Colony. The Kotwali police arrested a crime suspect, Mohammed Gafur, 35, on KC Dey Road in the city in possession of a light gun and a cartridge. Seventy-four of the arrested were in hiding, the police said.

Drugs seized, four nabbed
The Department of Narcotics Control seized 73 yaba tablets at Mohammadpur and Uttara in the Dhaka city on Monday. The department conducted operation at Agargaon Freedom Fighters’ Rehabilitation Multi-lateral Cooperatives Society market and seized 23 yaba tablets. Amir Hossain, 41, was arrested in the connection. In another operation at Chalaban of Uttara, the team seized 50 yaba tablets, Tk 13,000 in cash and a car used in the drug business. The team also arrested Hanif, 45, Nurul Islam, 42 and Saidur Rahmn Tuhin in this connection. Two cases were filed with the Uttara and the Mohammadpur police.

8th int’l philosophy confce at JU
The two-day eighth international philosophy congress, Bangladesh will be held at Jahangirnagar University from August 28. Philosophers and politicians are expected join the conference. Two keynote papers — ‘utilitarianism and contemporary moral philosophy, and ‘political thought of Bangladesh’ — will be read out. The congress chair, Professor AFM Obaidur Rahman, requested interested philosophers to send in their articles via e-mail to amed@juniv.edu or to the philosophy department of the university by post.

Nimbus, AIESEC land deal
The Nimbus Advertising and the AIESEC Bangladesh recently signed an agreement on brand and communication partnership in a ceremony at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka. Nimbus managing director Mahabubur Rahman Sakib and AIESEC Bangladesh president signed the agreement. The minister for foreign affairs, M Morshed Khan, and the state minister for education, ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon, were present.
— New Age